Tips And Advice For Small Space Living

You may live in an apartment in the city centre where space is limited, you may be a student where your digs is a small studio apartment or you may have a house where you want to maximise on the small space you have in your spare room. Regardless of your situation, there are so many benefits to living in a small space!

Benefits of living in a small space

It's so much easier to clean when you don't have as much floor space to hoover, surfaces to clean or rooms to tidy!

Living in a smaller home is much cheaper to maintain and your bills will be less expensive.

It's much cheaper to rent or buy a smaller home when comparing places in the same area, meaning you have more money to buy nice things and enjoy going out 🙂

A smaller space can easily be made to feel cosy and homely.

The challenges of living in a smaller space however, are that you may not have enough storage space and it also takes a little bit more thought when decorating and furnishing. A mistake that's often made is that people buy furniture that is out of proportion to the room size due to not having the knowledge of where to buy suitable items. It can be a tough job when you aren't sure of what works and what doesn't.

There are so many innovative products out there to help you maximise on the space you live in. Whether it be flexible furniture that have dual purposes, or savvy storage solutions that fit within the nooks and crannys.

I thought I'd gather together some tips to help you when sprucing up your small space along with showcase my favourite interior products that tackle the problems of small space living.

Tip: Choose Flexible Furniture

Multi-functional furniture is great for smaller spaces because it means you can use one piece of furniture to meet two needs. This frees up space to use for other things that you may not have had space for. Whether it be a console table/desk that extends to a dining table, a sofa that transforms into a bed, a light that duals up as a side table or a footstool that also has hidden storage within - there are some cool quirky pieces of furniture and homeware available that are both functional and stylish. I've found some amazing products from Habitat, Made.com, Utility , Cox and Cox, West Elm and Lago that are either dual purpose or flexible and space saving.

Habitat currently has a Flexible Living campaign running at the moment with a fantastic range of furniture. They have some really nice products that are either dual purpose or stack, fold and lean to create space saving solutions suitable for the tiniest of apartments and compact homes.

This simple grey 'Sibu' sofa changes into a bed and the 'Heath 2-4' console table extends into a dining table to seat 4. I love the art-deco angular style design of the table legs; it has a clean simple look suitable for a small space but with a lovely detail that gives it a luxury feel.

Habitat also have a brilliant selection of occasional tables and chairs that fold away. The folding tables are perfect if you want to sit at the sofa with your laptop or have a tv dinner. They easily fold away and can be stored against a wall or in a nook next to your sofa. These folding tables and chairs are also great for students who want an occasional table in their studio apartment but don't want to take up too much space with a dining table full time (leaves you with more room in your apartment to put seating for when you have friends around).

This 'Wallace' lamp from the Habitat range duals up as a side table and is perfect to fit in the even the tiniest of spaces. I've never came across anything like this before so it's a spot on find. I love that the light doesn't take up any surface space on the table top and it could be used in your living room or as a bedside table.

This box frame drop leaf dining table is from West Elm. The simple streamlined design is ideal for a smaller space because it won't over power a room. The mango wood top gives the table a warmth contrast to the metal frame legs. At its smallest the table width is 98cm x 61cm and extends to 123cm.

This 'Innovation' sofa bed is from John Lewis and has a really simple midcentury design with no arms. The button detail on the seat and cushion backs make this a stylish addition to any small space with it's minimal and unobtrusive design.

This Mid-Century Mini Desk - Oregano is from West Elm and could also be used as a console/dressing table in a small room or studio apartment. I love that it's so simple and compact yet still manages to incorporate a drawer into the design which could be good to store your stationery or make-up.

Tip: Choose small side tables to fit within the nooks and crannys

Round tables tend to work quite well in small spaces. Sometimes a sofa has curved edges and a square side table might not quite fit next to it. I have found some lovely side tables that are quite delicate looking and don't take up too much space. The Alana copper side table from Made.com is perfect for small spaces measuring at 41cm diameter. The slick metallic finish will help bounce light around a room and give an extra surface to put either a light, some candles or a surface to put your drink.

This lovely 'Cora Drinks Trolley' is from made.com too and measures at 41cm diameter. It has two shelves so has double the amount of surface for the same amount of space that one table would usually take up. You can use this drinks trolley as a standard side table and because it has wheels, it's easily moved around for multiple purposes. I love the colours with the contrasting gold top; this item can give any room a glamorous finishing touch.

The 'Nova' set of 3 nesting tables are from made.com and are ideal if you often have guests around, needing extra tables on occasion. The geometric shaped tables all sit within each other so take up less space when not in use. They have a sophisticated look and an Art Deco feel that wouldn't look out of place in The Great Gatsby film! If you like luxury then these tables would fit in perfectly 🙂

Tip: Make the most of the height of a room

Opt for tall and narrow shelving or pieces of furniture that take advantage of the height of a room as opposed to a solid sideboard - this means your furniture will be less intrusive of the floor space and you might be able to fit another chair in or a floor lamp! This leaning Aalto wall rack is from Cox and Cox and has a mixture of shelves, hooks and drawers for storage. It has an open look so it's not too intrusive of the space.

This Jessie narrow shelving unit from Habitat is perfect small spaces. At a narrow width of 36.5cm and depth of 37cm this could fit in any nook and cranny. It would be good to put next to your sofa if you didn't have enough dept for a side table and it maximises the height of your room to store lots of bits and bobs from books, dvds, cds, plants, ornaments etc.

Using hooks on walls or on the back of doors allows you to optimise vertical space for storage. If you opt for a cool design it can pair up as art so the hooks have a dual purpose. I've found some stylish hooks from Utility . Here are my faves!

I found a cool concept by Italian design led brand Lago called Punto Storage. I used to work with this brand quite a lot when I worked as an Interior Design consultant and it was my favourite brand because of the out of the box designs, interesting concepts and amazing colour range!! I mainly worked with the modular wall units and wardrobes but they do have a cool selection of occasional pieces, dining tables and shelving.

The Punto Storage range mixes circular shapes with storage and shelving. The circular storage can be hung on the wall in an interesting feature and you can either opt for the circles to be in a mixture of bright colours or as a mirror. This is a great way of incorporating shelving, storage, mirrors and art in one piece on your walls!

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